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Justice Matters for Women

What is Justice Matters for Women about?

Criminal justice fails women.

Current responses to criminalised women are seriously flawed and harmful to women. Prioritising the criminal justice system in our response to violence against women has undermined the development of more effective ways to address the harms women face.

As part of the Centre’s Justice Matters initiative, we are working with Women in Prison and a growing network of individuals and organisations who want to support alternatives to criminal justice for women.

Through events and online publications we seek to generate discussion about criminal justice failure for women. Importantly, however, this isn’t just about criticising criminal justice or those people working to support women caught up in it. It’s about forming alliances and sharing knowledge about how we can do things differently beyond criminal justice.

A call to action

The harms women face are widespread yet consistently ignored. Many criminal justice interventions and support services serve to replicate and reinforce unequal gender relations rather than tackle the root causes of harm... We are calling on others to work with us to challenge structural inequality and eradicate punishment and control in women's lives.

You can read it in full here and find out why others are supporting this call here.

Resources and information

Event: In May 2015 we held a one day conference bringing together activists, researchers and women affected by criminal justice. You can find out more and watch the footage here.

Articles: Read all of the Justice Matters for Women comment pieces on our website.